Over a dozen students assemble in Dana Hall. Each one takes turns stepping forward and speaking. They deliver a campaign promise or an inspirational quip. When their two minutes are over they step back and let another candidate take their place.

The presentation was Student Senate’s first attempt at holding an open table meeting between voters and candidates for Student Senate. The event was held at 8 p.m. in Dana Hall 110 on Tuesday, April 22.

Fourteen students participated, those studying in Carlisle spoke for themselves and those studying abroad either given the option to record videos or select someone to read for them.

Tracy Wolf ’15, a candidate for Vice President of Operations and Engagement, focused on the issues of Dickinson’s relationship with the Carlisle community, keeping the student body more involved in Student Senate and Student Senate more involved in the student body, bringing student groups to senate meetings to discuss goals, creating a newsletter to inform students about Senate happenings.

Wolf’s opponent, Jared Warzala ’16, stated that the biggest issue is student engagement in Student Senate and finding ways to get students more involved, as well as finding alternative ways to spread information throughout the campus.
Danette Moore ’15, running for Vice President of Finance, stated that she would be a strong candidate for the position due to her two years of membership on the Senate Finance Committee, and has also served as treasurer for multiple clubs.

Caroline Kapustynski’15, also a candidate for Vice President of Finance, wants to change the request for club budgets and special events from a word document to an Excel document to make it easier to fill out and eliminate the need to calculate by hand. Kaputsynski also spoke about her desire to provide opportunities to fund as many clubs and events as possible.

The event also featured a speech from one of the two candidates running for Vice President of Student Engagement. Elliot Hecht ’15 voiced his concern about campus issues such as the retention rate, relatively low late night programming, food quality, Gateway crashing during course request periods and other college problems.

The night ended with presentations by the candidates for Senate President. Nicole Wasson ’15, who Skyped into the event from Argentia where she was studying abroad, said that she wants to make Student Senate more accessible as a whole as well as more accountable. Wasson also proposed a plan to set aside one weekend a month to meet with all club presidents to facilitate sustained collaboration and make sure all needs are met.,

“What you care about, we should care about,” said Austin Davis ’15, opposing candidate for Student Senate President. Davis expressed that housing and dining experiences are most important, suggesting improvements such as giving students direct input into residential life and facility renovations as well as extending the Quarry’s and Biblio’s active hours.
Students who attended the event found the presentations informative, but expressed disappointment at the relatively low turn out.

“In my opinion, I find that there’s too much apathy on campus when it comes to Student Senate and people that run it. It needs to go away,” said James Dappert ’17, a First-Year Senator. “This event should have been full, people don’t understand how much power Student Senate has and if the people actually cared about this and made us matter more, we would be able to get a lot more done and we would be more powerful.”

The polls for Senate elections will be open on Gateway from 7 a.m. on Wednesday, April 23 until 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 24. Voting booths from Cumberland County will be available both days from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in front of the Social Hall in the HUB.